More TOTP on e-bay

[Brian Evans]

I also have around 100 audio recordings of his and will get to those at a later date.

(extract from ebay advert)

[Gary Critcher]

also, he says they are 405 lines, weren't we 625 by the time these programmes were TX'd??

[Paul Rumbol]

When all is said and done i really hope Chris Perry pulls a master stroke at the closing seconds of the auction. It really is important we get this. Ive never seen so much missing material in one auction before.
Quick question. Would these tapes be colour - or just b/w? Most of the original shows would have been in colour.

[Gary Critcher]

I've been informed that 405 line transmissions weren't actually stopped until 1985, so I stand corrected. I could have swon they finished earlier than that!

[Koen Br]

rumbers1 said:

When all is said and done i really hope Chris Perry pulls a master stroke at the closing seconds of the auction. It really is important we get this. Ive never seen so much missing material in one auction before.
Quick question. Would these tapes be colour - or just b/w? Most of the original shows would have been in colour.

Weren't 405 line transmissions b&w only? Anyway, I believe this particular type of VT recorders weren't able to record in colour.

[hartley967]

koen said:

rumbers1 said:

When all is said and done i really hope Chris Perry pulls a master stroke at the closing seconds of the auction. It really is important we get this. Ive never seen so much missing material in one auction before.
Quick question. Would these tapes be colour - or just b/w? Most of the original shows would have been in colour.

Weren't 405 line transmissions b&w only? Anyway, I believe this particular type of VT recorders weren't able to record in colour.

Yes all 405 line transmissions were in B/W , the sound was also AM which meant it could get a bit ghostly sounding depending on atmospheric conditions.
(Apart from ITV having a bit of fun in the 60s, transmitting stuff like Captain Scarlet in the middle of the night in 405 line NTSC colour)

If these came from a Welsh donor its not surprising, as the VHF 405 lines signal could travel to places UHF 625 just could not reach such as up mountains etc. These days these mountainous areas are presumably served by cable links rather than transmitters?

[ColinYoung1963]

I was interested in this lot (for the obvious reason of the Dalek bit) but it looks from this thread that others too are going for it, ah well, never mind, and i have a 405 CV machine from 67 as well.

Good luck chaps

Col

[Paul Rumbol]

What about the BBC saying the tapes were unusable 8 years ago? Can one of Chris Perry's team chase this up with the BBC to ascertain whether there's any truth to this claim.

[Christopher Perry]

As I stated in an earlier post, the TOTP production office borrowed two of these tapes, and never returned them. I know where the tapes went to, and I can no longer get to them but they survive.

The BBC Archives would have accessed the whole collection had they known, but the TOTP production office were a law to themselves. When they found they were bw and not broadcast quality they lost interest.

We will bid and hope it doesn't get too expensive. I am assured by people better technical than me that the tapes look genuine and the story does all tie-up.

c

[garyjordanbrum]

If you take a look at the pics again on the auction you will notice there are more than 39 tapes/boxes this indicates the image (not the auction) contains the 100 AUDIO tapes too.

Also if you look at the second pic you will notice the COLOUR of the tape on the right hand side is BLACK.

You can bet your bottom dollar if Kal do not win these we or the bands/artists fans or the artists featured on these WILL NEVER GET TO SEE THEM, so it's important that only Kal bid for them, being at the forefront of the classic TV industry with the contacts and expertise to bring them to us.
A new bidder (bidder 5) has now pushed it to £185 so I suggest next Sunday that 1 bidder from here, in conjunction with Chris, allowing "us" to win them and if the price goes over the top we can all put together.

[Paul Rumbol]

Chris/Laurence
just to keep you updated that this lot is generating some avid interest among Cliff fans - especially continental Europe (Holland, Denmark) where the following is especially loyal.
One Dutch girl fan recently paid over £8000 for about 10 45rpm unreleased acetates on ebay and she has an uncanny knack of winning over all competition in the final seconds. Shes amasses anything to do with Cliff and price seems to be no limit.
You can forget about bidding in just hundreds here, honest.

I dont know how deep (or shallow) Kal's coffers are but i quite like Gary's suggestion that we all pull together if the price gets astronomical. I personally would add £200 if the price exceeds an agreed amount and if a minimum of a dozen others on here pledged the same it might give you more power to your elbow to win.
Any thoughts on this?

[Simon Winters]

Just one other thought - as the seller claims that the recordings were made on a 405-line machine, and as BBC2 was never broadcast on 405-line (as far as I understand).........is anyone able to identify any BBC2 transmissions on the list? If there are any BBC2 shows on a tape, it may be an audiotape.

By the way, it all looks very much like audio tape to me in the picture.

[simonhench]

It strikes me that if you want the help of somebody with deep pockets, who might well be willing to co-operate with Kaleidoscope in providing the archives with copies, it might be a good idea attempting to contact Cliff Richard's management...

[Paul Watkins]

I have limited funds but I'd be willing to add some money to the fund if it meant we would get to see these recordings.

What i find strange is, Why aren't the BBC or Granada interested in this auction?.

[William Martin]

strange as it may sound there are still area of scotland and wales with no tv reception either digital, analogue or cable